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Community policing efforts make an impact in city neighborhoods

Wilmington police Officer Fred Clark Jr. talks with longtime Long Leaf Mobile Home Park resident Ann Brehmer while on foot patrol in the mobile home park in Wilmington on Thursday, July 24, 2014. Clark is part of the Wilmington Police Department's commitment to community policing.

Published: Friday, July 25, 2014 at 4:53 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, July 25, 2014 at 4:53 p.m.

Wilmington Police Department Officer Fred Clark had to return to his car for one last piece of paper before he could continue on his way.

Reaching into the back seat of his cruiser, which was parked at Pender Avenue and 21st Street, Clark tore a couple stickers off a thick roll. Then he crossed the street to give them to a pair of young girls who had been watching his car.

"I feel like I'm running for mayor sometimes," Clark said after returning to the cruiser.

Clark, a 15-year veteran of the department, is the only officer dedicated solely to a community policing foot patrol, but a corporal will be assigned to the unit in the next two weeks. The foot patrols are just one way WPD uses community policing, with other initiatives including the downtown and public housing units, both of which have been touted as successes by department leadership in recent months.

WPD is considering how to expand these efforts because, officials say, of those successes.

"People respond very positively, and they like to see our officers, they like to talk to them, they like to see them out of their cars, they want to interact with our officers in our neighborhoods," Chief Ralph Evangelous said. "That whole perception of safety is huge, as well as the ability to glean information from them. You only get that by getting out and talking to people."

Recently, a man jumped into his beaten-up pickup truck and chased Clark down at 19th and Chestnut streets only to tell the surprised officer he appreciated seeing a police presence in his neighborhood.

Experts say community police officers such as Clark are vital to law enforcement.

"Treating the public with respect and listening to what they have to say is just as important, in the long run, as stopping and frisking suspicious individuals," said Dennis Rosenbaum, director of the Center for Research in Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

But expanding WPD's community policing footprint will come with a price tag, and when finances tightened in the past, the department discarded similar efforts.

WPD's community policing

Broadly speaking, community policing uses non-traditional techniques to work with residents to untangle the conditions that lead to crime, according to the Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

"People like to say it's not a project or program. It's a philosophy," said Dr. Jan Roehl, a consultant who has spent more than 30 years researching criminal and civil justice programs.

And officials say community policing has worked in parts of Wilmington. Take, for instance, the downtown district, which WPD defines as the area bordered by the Cape Fear River, the Isabel Holmes Bridge, Fifth Avenue and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

In 2009, there were 511 Part I crimes in that area, a category that includes murder, rape, assault and robbery, among others.

Since then, the number of crimes has fallen steadily, reaching 350 in 2013, the lowest number in 12 years, according to WPD data. Police attribute that drop in part to the creation of the Downtown Task Force, a partnership between WPD and the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, in 2011.

That unit's success has led Evangelous and WPD to openly wonder whether the task force should be replicated. At June's city council meeting, Evangelous discussed targeting District 3, which is bordered to the north by Market Street, the east by Colonial Drive, the west by Fifth Avenue to Castle Street and then the Cape Fear River and to the south by Martin Street. The police department identified 10 hotspots for violent crimes citywide, and four of them fall within District 3.

To have the same success in District 3, according to WPD data, the department would need nine new officers, three new sergeants and one new lieutenant position, at an annual cost of $708,000. Equipping those officers and giving them vehicles would cost another $656,500.

The department has not asked city council for funding yet, as any requests will be based on the results of a staffing study done with COPS and Michigan State University. The staffing study is expected to be finished in the late summer or early fall.

Council did grant WPD permission to go ahead with a grant from COPS that would see the department receive more than $900,000 over three years to put eight officers in high-gunfire areas. After those three years are up, though, retaining those officers would cost about $500,000 per year.

Making it work

Community policing's reliance on funding was evident at June's council meeting.

"Initiatives are maintained and implemented based on available funding and staffing," read one slide.

In 2007, the city started an initiative requiring officers to spend at least one hour during each of their shifts walking around their assigned zones. That has become unrealistic in recent years, Evangelous said, because of high call volumes that are already straining WPD's officers.

"Incident policing is how we policed for several decades, and it's always easy to get back there because not a lot of self-initiated policing is done when you're driven by radio calls," Evangelous said. Community policing is "a constant work in progress and one that you have to continue to embrace. And the public wants it, they've made it clear that they want it."

Community policing extends beyond expensive initiatives, though. At its most effective, one expert said, it becomes a department-wide philosophy.

"The important point for management is to communicate the importance of community policing, problem solving, and respectful interactions by all officers, and providing them with training in these areas," Rosenbaum said.

"Talking about it is not sufficient. Officers need real skills and tactics to achieve these goals," he added.

Still, there are advantages to having a small unit focused on community policing instead of having patrol officers try to fit it into their schedules.

"In the past, some departments adopted generalist philosophies where every one of our officers are community policing officers," Roehl said. "When you have that generalist approach, it's kind of, 'They'll build partnerships and do problem solving in their spare time.'"

Talking to everyone

Clark, the Wilmington community police officer, doesn't have spare time. His whole day is spent walking through Wilmington's neighborhoods and talking to residents.

During a two-hour period on the afternoon of July 17, he paced around the Carolina Place and Ardmore neighborhoods, took a lap through the alleys in Forest Hills, checked on some abandoned houses downtown to make sure the homeless hadn't moved in and walked around the Long Leaf Mobile Home Park.

"Basically, I walk around and talk to everyone I see," said Clark, who has been on assignment since April in the neighborhoods north and west of Kerr Avenue, Shipyard Boulevard and Carolina Beach Road that, when stitched together, make up the city's Northwest division.

At one point, Clark was strolling up the 1900 block of Church Street when a woman taking her groceries in spotted him coming toward her. She took a long glance at the officer, wearing his dark blue uniform outdoors in the middle of a 90-something degree afternoon.

"Are you just walking the beat or you walking for your health?" she said.

Clark laughed and said, "A little bit of both."

Then the woman told Clark that her neighbors make too much noise and can be heard clearly even over the whirring of a window air conditioning unit. He reminded her she should call 911 when there is a problem and, when she appeared satisfied, he told her to have a good day and went on his way.

"People just want to put a face to the badge," Clark said as he walked away, continuing his never-ending lap of the city.

<p>Wilmington Police Department Officer Fred Clark had to return to his car for one last piece of paper before he could continue on his way.</p><p>Reaching into the back seat of his cruiser, which was parked at Pender Avenue and 21st Street, Clark tore a couple stickers off a thick roll. Then he crossed the street to give them to a pair of young girls who had been watching his car.</p><p>"I feel like I'm running for mayor sometimes," Clark said after returning to the cruiser.</p><p>Clark, a 15-year veteran of the department, is the only officer dedicated solely to a community policing foot patrol, but a corporal will be assigned to the unit in the next two weeks. The foot patrols are just one way WPD uses community policing, with other initiatives including the downtown and public housing units, both of which have been touted as successes by department leadership in recent months.</p><p>WPD is considering how to expand these efforts because, officials say, of those successes.</p><p>"People respond very positively, and they like to see our officers, they like to talk to them, they like to see them out of their cars, they want to interact with our officers in our neighborhoods," Chief <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9935"><b>Ralph Evangelous</b></a> said. "That whole perception of safety is huge, as well as the ability to glean information from them. You only get that by getting out and talking to people."</p><p>Recently, a man jumped into his beaten-up pickup truck and chased Clark down at 19th and Chestnut streets only to tell the surprised officer he appreciated seeing a police presence in his neighborhood.</p><p>Experts say community police officers such as Clark are vital to law enforcement.</p><p>"Treating the public with respect and listening to what they have to say is just as important, in the long run, as stopping and frisking suspicious individuals," said Dennis Rosenbaum, director of the Center for Research in Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.</p><p>But expanding WPD's community policing footprint will come with a price tag, and when finances tightened in the past, the department discarded similar efforts.</p><p><b>WPD's community policing</b></p><p>Broadly speaking, community policing uses non-traditional techniques to work with residents to untangle the conditions that lead to crime, according to the Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).</p><p>"People like to say it's not a project or program. It's a philosophy," said Dr. Jan Roehl, a consultant who has spent more than 30 years researching criminal and civil justice programs.</p><p>And officials say community policing has worked in parts of Wilmington. Take, for instance, the downtown district, which WPD defines as the area bordered by the <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic91"><b>Cape Fear River</b></a>, the Isabel Holmes Bridge, Fifth Avenue and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. </p><p>In 2009, there were 511 Part I crimes in that area, a category that includes murder, rape, assault and robbery, among others.</p><p>Since then, the number of crimes has fallen steadily, reaching 350 in 2013, the lowest number in 12 years, according to WPD data. Police attribute that drop in part to the creation of the Downtown Task Force, a partnership between WPD and the <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9932"><b>New Hanover County Sheriff</b></a>'s Office, in 2011.</p><p>That unit's success has led Evangelous and WPD to openly wonder whether the task force should be replicated. At June's city council meeting, Evangelous discussed targeting District 3, which is bordered to the north by Market Street, the east by Colonial Drive, the west by Fifth Avenue to Castle Street and then the Cape Fear River and to the south by Martin Street. The police department identified 10 hotspots for violent crimes citywide, and four of them fall within District 3.</p><p>To have the same success in District 3, according to WPD data, the department would need nine new officers, three new sergeants and one new lieutenant position, at an annual cost of $708,000. Equipping those officers and giving them vehicles would cost another $656,500.</p><p>The department has not asked city council for funding yet, as any requests will be based on the results of a staffing study done with COPS and Michigan State University. The staffing study is expected to be finished in the late summer or early fall.</p><p>Council did grant WPD permission to go ahead with a grant from COPS that would see the department receive more than $900,000 over three years to put eight officers in high-gunfire areas. After those three years are up, though, retaining those officers would cost about $500,000 per year.</p><p><b>Making it work</b></p><p>Community policing's reliance on funding was evident at June's council meeting.</p><p>"Initiatives are maintained and implemented based on available funding and staffing," read one slide.</p><p>In 2007, the city started an initiative requiring officers to spend at least one hour during each of their shifts walking around their assigned zones. That has become unrealistic in recent years, Evangelous said, because of high call volumes that are already straining WPD's officers.</p><p>"Incident policing is how we policed for several decades, and it's always easy to get back there because not a lot of self-initiated policing is done when you're driven by radio calls," Evangelous said. Community policing is "a constant work in progress and one that you have to continue to embrace. And the public wants it, they've made it clear that they want it."</p><p>Community policing extends beyond expensive initiatives, though. At its most effective, one expert said, it becomes a department-wide philosophy.</p><p>"The important point for management is to communicate the importance of community policing, problem solving, and respectful interactions by all officers, and providing them with training in these areas," Rosenbaum said.</p><p>"Talking about it is not sufficient. Officers need real skills and tactics to achieve these goals," he added.</p><p>Still, there are advantages to having a small unit focused on community policing instead of having patrol officers try to fit it into their schedules.</p><p>"In the past, some departments adopted generalist philosophies where every one of our officers are community policing officers," Roehl said. "When you have that generalist approach, it's kind of, 'They'll build partnerships and do problem solving in their spare time.'"</p><p><b>Talking to everyone</b></p><p>Clark, the Wilmington community police officer, doesn't have spare time. His whole day is spent walking through Wilmington's neighborhoods and talking to residents. </p><p>During a two-hour period on the afternoon of July 17, he paced around the Carolina Place and Ardmore neighborhoods, took a lap through the alleys in Forest Hills, checked on some abandoned houses downtown to make sure the homeless hadn't moved in and walked around the Long Leaf Mobile Home Park.</p><p>"Basically, I walk around and talk to everyone I see," said Clark, who has been on assignment since April in the neighborhoods north and west of Kerr Avenue, Shipyard Boulevard and Carolina Beach Road that, when stitched together, make up the city's Northwest division.</p><p>At one point, Clark was strolling up the 1900 block of Church Street when a woman taking her groceries in spotted him coming toward her. She took a long glance at the officer, wearing his dark blue uniform outdoors in the middle of a 90-something degree afternoon.</p><p>"Are you just walking the beat or you walking for your health?" she said.</p><p>Clark laughed and said, "A little bit of both."</p><p>Then the woman told Clark that her neighbors make too much noise and can be heard clearly even over the whirring of a window air conditioning unit. He reminded her she should call 911 when there is a problem and, when she appeared satisfied, he told her to have a good day and went on his way.</p><p>"People just want to put a face to the badge," Clark said as he walked away, continuing his never-ending lap of the city.</p><p><i></p><p>Adam Wagner: 343-2096</p><p>On <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/news41"><b>Twitter</b></a>: @AdamWagner1990</i></p>